ABOUT

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER, FOUNDER

Alexandra Bodnarchuk is a Carpatho Rusyn American choreographer and cultural activist. In 2024 she founded Doma Dance Theater where she serves as Artistic Director and choreographer. Centering the body as a tangible site of culture, her work explores questions of self-expression, community, dispossession, and cross-cultural identity through solo pieces and ensemble works for the stage and screen.

The daughter of first- and third-generation immigrants, she grew up Pittsburgh, PA studying European folk traditions, including classical ballet and Slavic and Balkan folk dance. She danced with the North Hills Junior Tamburitzans under the direction of Željko Jergan, and Slavjane Folk Ensemble, the premiere Carpatho-Rusyn children’s dance ensemble in the United States under the direction of Jack Poloka.

Her work has been recognized throughout the US and Europe for its emotionality and innovative expression of cultural identity. Notably, her work was selected for the exhibit Forms of Presence: Art of Lemkos/Carpatho Rusyns which was on display at the National Ethnography Museum in Warsaw, Poland in 2026. Curated by Michał Szymko, Bodnarchuk and Andy Warhol were the two American artists featured amongst 46 international artists including Epifaniusz Drowniak (Nikifor), Jerzy Nowosielski, and Julia Warhola.

She is a 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow, and a 2020/2022 Jerome Hill Artists Fellow Finalist (Jerome Foundation). Her work has been presented by The Southern Theater (MN), Kelly Strayhorn Theater (PA), Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival (PA), Movement Research (NY), BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (NY), and Cowles Center for Dance (MN). Her work has been commissioned by The Museum of Russian Art, Threads Dance Project, Jim Johnson, the Performing Institute of Minnesota, Alternative Motion Project, Isabel Shaida, and ARENA Dances.

Photo Credit: Joshua Filmater

PRODUCING ARTISTIC & MUSIC DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER

Brandon Anderson Musser is a Minneapolis based composer and sound designer. He uses electronics, PA systems, and sampling philosophies to create emotional movement and sonic physicalities for performance. His solo works explore the emotional and physical ends of ambient music.

From Pittsburgh, PA, he is a son of a saxophonist truck driver and a head union nurse. His performance studies began in marching music, under the direction of Devon Smeal, and continued in the bands DNR, oldfears, Sikes and the New Violence, Nevada Mountains, and Divorce. 

He spent 5 years on national tours and since has collaborated in design and composition with Akiko, Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Berit Ahlgren, Black Label Movement, Doma Dance Theater, Hatch Dance, Marcela Michelle, Nervous Theater, Pedra Pepa, and The Taja Will Ensemble among others. His works have been heard in First Avenue, The Cowles Center for Dance, Jacob’s Pillow, Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Most Wanted Fine Arts, PearlArts, RedEye Theater, Ritz Theater, SPACE Gallery, The 7th St. Entry, The Hennepin County Library, & The Southern Theater.

Since 2024 he has been the Producing Artistic & Music Director of Doma Dance Theater.

Photo Credit: Joshua Filmater

RESIDENT DRAMATURG

Marcela Michelle is a community-engaged transdisciplinary artist, educator, facilitator, and producer living and working on Mni Sota Makoce. Her artistic practice spans mediums and genres, engaging dance, music, physical and scripted theatre, design, burlesque, literature, construction, performance, theory, composition, devising, and the culinary arts.

She is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in the inaugural Combined Artistic Fields, a 2020-2022 Hennepin Theatre Trust Teaching Artist in Residence, a 2019 Mentee of the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation, and a member of Actor’s Equity. She is currently the Resident Dramaturg for Doma Dance Theater and a Beverage Co-Director with Mamasan Bartending Collective.

Her original work has been presented by Walker Art Center (Choreographer’s Evening), Red Eye Theater (NW4W), Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio, Northern Spark, Right Here Showcase, The Minneapolis Burlesque Festival, Patrick’s Cabaret, Queertopia, Wanderlust Productions, and 20% Theatre Company, where she worked in many capacities from 2015 to 2021, ultimately serving as Artistic Director in its final years.

She enjoys cooking, reading, video essays, and long periods of rest with her Wife and Dogter.

RESIDENT TRANSLATOR

Nathan is a lecturer of Russian at the University of Oklahoma in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.

He is interested in Slavic linguistics, dialectology, phonetics, and phonology. He is particularly interested in the relationship between 'Standard Language' and dialects as well as the effect of standardization and language ideologies on attitudes toward dialects and on the perception of those, who speak different dialects.

He is also interested in current developments in Slavic languages, including Russian, Polish, Ukranian, and BCMS (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin). He has a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literature from University of Washington.

Nathan teaches Beginning Rusyn for English speakers at the Študium Carpatho Ruthenorum at the University of Prešov, in Prešov Slovakia.

DANCER

Claudia d’Auria is a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in the Twin Cities. 

Originally from Pasadena, CA, she moved to Minnesota to attend Carleton College. There she received the Sigrid and Erling Larson Award in Creative and Performing Arts, and the Ann Goodson Weiner Prize in Theater and Dance before graduating with a BA in Dance, with distinction, and a BA in Psychology. 

While at Carleton d’Auria was a member of the Jazz & Contemporary, and Semaphore Reperatory dance companies, performing works by various choreographers and companies including Shapiro and Smith Dance, Elayna Waxse, and Mathew Janczewski amongst others. She also choreographed several pieces of which her piece Tutti A Tavola! was selected to be presented at the ACDA North Central Conference. 

After graduating she joined the CULTIVATE Trainee Program at TU Dance Center where she performed works by Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Gregory Dolbashian, Tumelo Khupe, Laurel Keen, and Ronald K. Brown. 

She is excited to be in her first season dancing with Doma Dance Theater.

DANCER

Non Edwards is a dancer, choreographer, and movement trainer based in MN since 2009. Born and raised in Iowa, Non earned a BA in Math from Grinnell College and spent two seasons with the 940 Dance Company in Lawrence, KS before relocating to MN.

She dances to know her body and what it represents, and to be a skin for the audience to project onto. This is her second season with Doma Dance Theater, and ninth season with ARENA Dances. Possessing an expansive range, Edwards has collaborated with artists like Jess Forest, Hatch Dance and Honeyworks, HIJACK, Valierie Oliveiro, Anna Marie Shogren, Jinza Thayer, Morgan Thorson, and Laurie Van Wieren.

As a choreographer she creates situations for performers to exercise agency and audience to connect to their own bodies. Often working outside of theaters and at the intersection of dance with other forms, she has choreographed/co-choreographed 9 evening-length dance performances, one dance film, and several shorter dances and videos.

As an independent GYROKINESIS® Method trainer, Edwards shares rhythm-based exercises that combine strength, flexibility, and mobility. Find her classes at nonedwards.com.

Photo Credit: Joshua Filmater

DANCER

Now a professional dancer with Threads Dance Project and Doma Dance Theater, Odessa Rain began dancing at age three in a small studio in Eastern Pennsylvania. She later attended The Boston Conservatory on a merit scholarship, where she earned her BFA in contemporary dance performance. 

Recent achievements include traveling to Slovakia with Doma, taking on the role of Programs and Engagement Manager with Threads, and dancing in “Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Show” for a full US Bank Stadium; with 60k+ in attendance and over 1m people streaming the performance live on Netflix, Christmas Day 2025.  In addition to performing, Ms. Rain teaches and inspires the next generation throughout the Twin Cities.

Photo Credit: Joshua Filmater

DANCER

Holly Trenbath is an interdisciplinary dance artist and performing arts facilitator. Originally from Richmond, VA, they relocated to Minneapolis, MN in 2025 after graduating with a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. 

They have trained, worked, and performed up and down the East Coast in the fields of dance performance, choreography, arts administration, and production at organizations/institutions such as Bates Dance Festival, Richmond Ballet, and Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth. 

Since moving to the Twin Cities Holly has performed in the works of Erin Landers, Shane Larson, Rachel Lieberman, Carmen Lucia Lincoln, Erika Martin, Jinza Thayer, and Alys Ayumi Ogura. 

Currently she works administratively for Ballare Teatro and Off-Leash Area, studies as an apprentice with ARENA DANCES, and is excited to be in her first season dancing with Doma Dance Theater.

DANCER

Julia Wasilewski is a freelance dancer and movement educator from New Jersey. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dance and Sociology from Rutgers University, and a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Following graduate school, she moved to Pittsburgh, PA where she worked in behavioral health research at the University of Pittsburgh for several years. 

In addition to training with FireWALL Dance Theater, Wasilewski has studied with Ground Grooves, slowdanger, MICHIYAYA Dance, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and Yin Yue Dance Company. Recent credits include The Pittsburgh Opera’s Ariodante, Echoes of the Subconscious choreographed by Mamiko Usuda, and the music video for WHY?’s new single In Spirit. 

She is thrilled to join Doma Dance Theater for her first season.